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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1921, No. 39 



EDUCATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION 
IN BELGIUM 



By 



WALTER A. MONTGOMERY 



[ Advance Sheets from the Biennial Survey of Education 
■ in the United States, 1 9 1 8- 1 920 ] 




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1921 



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LIBRARY OF C0NQi«lE88 

JAN5-1922 

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EDUCATIONAL EECONSTRUCTION IN BELGIUM. 

By Walter A. IMontgomery. 



Contents. — Economic recovery and educational connections — Historical sketch of Belgian 
education — Education during tlie German occupation — Educational reconstruction — 
University reconstruction — The University of Brussels. 



ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND EDUCATIONAL CONNECTIONS. 

Belgium's progress in rehabilitation has been most marked of all 
the countries devastated by the World War. In resumption of 
operation of the iron and steel industries, of coal mining, of railroad 
rebuilding, of the sugar factories, of cotton spinning, of rebuilding 
residences and communal buildings, the Government, private initi- 
ative, capital, and lal)or of all gi'ades have cooperated in a way de- 
serving to be a model to the other governments of the world. 

M. Delacroix, chancellor of the exchequer, presenting the budget 
to the Parliament, well summarized the task lying immediately 
before the country in words which have educational as well as 
economic import : 

Our financial situation will improve by degrees. This year we shall have a 
budget which will approximately balance. The next year, when we are in a 
position to estimate the possible amount of indemnity we, are to receive, we 
shall take steps to reduce the national debt. Taxation will have to be Avell 
d'stributed in order that there may be no unfair burdens. .Justice is neces- 
sary, certainly, but it is imperative to meet our financial requirements. Every- 
body is spending too much. That must stop. All ranks of society must 
economize. The laborer is ready to work, if only he can be assured that his 
efforts have other results than the mere enrichment of his employers. 

The interest of the country lies in increased production. It is a very real 
necessity. War has impeded civilization. We have to make up lost time. 
Economy is necessary. Always economy. Our opportunity is at hand. The 
past lays upon us responsibility, and we have no right to compromise the 
future of our country. 

Economic and material rehabilitation have gone hand in hand 
with the intellectual and the educational. According to the reports 
of the Anglo-Belgian Union, Belgian cooj^eration, under the leader- 
ship of the noted author, Emile Cammaerts, has organized popular 
lectures throughout Belgium for the purpose of spreading knowledge 
of modern countries. All are illustrated, and treat of subjects of 
vital bearing on the future well-being of Belgium. 

70053°— 21 3 , 



4 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1918-1920. 

The economic revival is accompanied by an extraordinarily active 
intellectual revival. All universities and schools are crowded far 
beyond their capacity, and the minister of science and art, M. Jules 
Destree, is even contemplating restoring entrance examinations to 
universities in order to eliminate those who are less fitted for higher 
studies. Not less than five or six literary reviews have been lately 
founded in Belgium, and a generation of new writers, including some 
remarkable younger poets, is coming to the fore.^ 

One of the signs of educational awakening in Belgium was re- 
sumption of the publication of the journal of primary education, 
entitled L'Ecole Nationale. Suspending publication with the in- 
vasion in x4.ugust, 1914, it is now revived under the slightly different 
but more comprehensiA^e title L'Education Nationale. Its first num- 
bers, November 1 and 15, 1919, outline a statesmanlike program for 
the reconstruction and revivification of Belgian education. It does 
not regard the task as a piecemeal one. or segregate the several de- 
partments of education. It rather coordinates and makes each live 
by organic contact with the other. Belgian education is treated 
under 14 aspects by the most noted educational thinkers of that 
stricken country. Each sees in education the first and most powerful 
agency in the rehabilitation of the country. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BELGIAN EDUCATION. 

In order the better to understand what Belgium has in the way 
of educational foundations on which to build, it may be well to sum- 
marize the chief events and currents of Belgian education before the 
World War. The organic educational law of 1842, which marks for 
Belgium the beginning of a modern educational system, was re- 
pealed by the law of 1879, carried by the Liberal Party. After a 
trial of five years, it was supplanted by the law of 1884, carried by 
the Catholic Party, and constituting in essence a return to the law 
of 1842. In 1914, just before the war, a new school law, with com- 
pulsory attendance from 6 to 14 years as its most prominent feature, 
was passed by Parliament, but did not, of course, go into operation.^ 

EDUCATION DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION. 

The International Bureau of Teachers' Associations, to which the 
German Teachers' Association also belonged, had its headquarters in 
Belgium. At the outbreak of the war the bureau was transferred to 
Holland. According to Neue Bahnen, January-February, 1915, page 
215, the International Union made special efforts to ameliorate the 
condition of Belgian teachers. They endeavored to secure the return 

1 Abridged from " Tlie Present Situation in Belgium," The New Europe, May 6, 1920. 
= Facts taken from La Reforme de TEnseignement, by M. Leon De Paeuw, Brussels, 
1919. 



EDUCATIONAL RECONSTEUCTION IN BELGIUM. 5 

of the Belgian teachers to their schools, in which they were seconded 
by the German military authorities, who promised that the teachers 
who should open their schools again would be permitted to go on 
with their work undisturbed. Their presence, it was hoped, would 
help to restore order and nominal activities in the occupied terri- 
tory. 

Among the population there was a strong desire to have the schools 
resume their work even in places that had suffered much during the 
invasion. In Brussels the Germans claim that instruction had suf- 
fered virtually no interruption. Schools were opened in Luttich on 
October 1, 1914, in Antwerp November 9, in Louvain December 1. 
The German Advanced Modern School in Brussels was also to re- 
sume its work at as early a date as possible. 

In the Neue Bahnen for August, 1915, a correspondent, Walther 
Kluge, writes of the Belgian schools (none were in session where he 
was) : 

The school buildings had been commandeered ; furniture removed or piled 
haphazard in the rooms. Bibical pictures, verj' indifferent as works of art, 
hung on the walls. 

According to a statement of a Belgian teacher, a compulsory law was to 
have gone into effect in 1914. The teacher did not like the State school — a class 
of schools conducted parallel witli those conducted l)y the clergy. The teachers 
did not concern themselves with politics — they were neutral. 

The salaries of the teachers were apportioned on a pro-rata basis of the popu- 
lation of the district, creating four salary classes. Every two years an in- 
crement of 100 francs was added to tlie basic salary, rising to a maximum in 
each of the four classes of 2,600, 2,750, 3,100, and 3,400 francs, respectively. 

From the training colleges a teacher might procure a diploma for each of 
several branches. The more diplomas he had, the better his pension status. 
Assuming that a teacher must be retired on a pension with 25 years of ser%'lce, 
and has had a salary of 3.000 francs, the number of his diplomas was' added to 
his years of service, and the sum multiplied by his salary, and the product 
divided by 50. (Example: 25+2X3,000-^50^1,620 francs.) 

Anything like a ubiform standard of education was impossible in view of 
the many classes of schools — State schools, schools accredited by the State, 
schools conducted by the clergy, and still others. To this feature of Belgian 
education must be ascribed the lack of laws for compulsory attendance. 

The schools and the teachers look to France for their models in educational 
administration. Though the Flemish people are of Germanic origin, their 
education certainly is not. 

An inquiry made of 34 persons, between the ages of 14 and 62, showed that 
some had attended school only 1 year; others ranged from 1 to 13 years of 
attendance. Some could not write their names. 

EDUCATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. 

Complete reorganization of the entire Belgian system of primary 
and agricultural instruction, with close adaptation to the needs of 
the reconstruction and war period, are the aims of the governmental 
and educational authorities, according to the first information fur- 
nished since the war by the department of sciences and arts. It is 



6 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1918-1920, 

anticipated that the program and schedule of studies of the primary 
and normal schools Avill be the first points of attack. 

The new organic law of primary instruction expressly provides for 
the installation of State instruction along practical lines for pupils 
of 12 to 14 years. These schools are to be modeled after the con- 
tinuation schools projected by the English education act of 1918. 

The devastated schools of Flanders are in actual process of re- 
construction. The Province of East Flanders has voted a pre- 
liminary loan of 10,000,000 francs to aid the individual communes 
in the establishment of 700 to 800 classes in the public schools, in 
addition to those existing before the war. This does not include 
those destroyed by the German occupa.tion. 

Number of pupils in the primary sehools in Belgium in June, 1920} 



Schools 

Classes 

Boys 

Girls 

Teachers (men) 

Teachers (women) . 



Public 
schools. 



4,827 
13, 575 
326, 698 
187, 309 
8,086 
7,512 



Free 
(denomi- 
national). 



3,132 
11,212 
156,975 
289, 759 
3,048 
8,094 



1 Figures taken from the organ of the Belgian Teachers' Association. 

The school law passed October 13, 1919, modifies the organic law 
of primary education in quite a number of its articles, chiefly in those 
that fixed the salaries of teachers. Following are the main lines of 
the changes : 

Article I. The communal council fixes the salary of communal teachers 
on the following bases : 

1. A miuiuuim salary of 3,000 francs for men teachers and of 2,600 francs for 

women. 

2. An allowance for residence fixed as follows for several classes : 
In communes of .5,000 inhabitants and less, 200 francs. 

In communes of 5,001 to 40,000 inhabitants. 300 francs. 
In communes of 40,001 to 100.000 inhabitants, 400 francs. 
In communes of more than 100,000 inhabitants, .500 francs. 
This allowance shall be doubled — 

(a) For married men teachers and for \\adows and widowers with one or 

more children. 

(b) For heads of schools. 

Article II. The teacher is entitled to 10 annual increases of 100 fx-ancs, 
followed by 10 biennial increases of 150 francs, up to the sum necessary to 
increase the minimum allowed by law up to 2,500 francs. 

For women teachers the scale of increases is fixed, respectively, at SO francs 
and 120 francs up to 2,000 francs, the minimum allowed by law. 

Article V. An allowance for administration, calculated on the basis of ICK) 
francs a class, is granted to school heads officially, to the teachers in charge 
of instruction, who also have the oversight of five classes or less. This allow- 
ance can not be less than 200 nor more than 600 francs. 



EDTTCATIONAL RECOlSrSTRUCTTOlSr IN BELGIUM. 7 

The Moniteiir Beige of March 27. 1920, published a series of royal 
decrees establishing a Higher Council of Public Instruction, reor- 
ganizing the existing conseils de perfectionnement for higher, mid- 
dle, normal, and primary education, and designating the members of 
the four groups. 

By the terms of these decrees, the Higher Council of Public In- 
struction, composed of 15 members named for a term of four years, is 
charged with the duty of establishing the coordination of the dif- 
ferent divisions of education in which the State is interested. It 
meets at the call of the minister of sciences and fine arts, or at the 
request of at least half its members. The director general, the sec- 
retary of public instruction, sits with it, but has only a consultative 
voice in its deliberations. The council is to give its advice upon 
matters submitted to it by the minister. 

Every member may also submit to the council matters for con- 
sideration which seem useful to him, and call for their examination 
and a vote thereon for governmental guidance. The council may 
meet separately or with one or the other of the conseils de perfec- 
tionnement. It may delegate one or more of its members to attend, 
with consultative voice only, the deliberations of one of these 
councils. 

The higher council may study every question concerning educa- 
tion, even if it be not submitted to it by the minister. It may, with 
the authorization of the minister, institute investigations, consult spe- 
cialists, and take charge of temporary inspections and traveling mis- 
sions, under the direction of the minister. 

The regulations governing the three conseils de perfectionnement 
are along the same lines. It is to be noted that the council for 
higher education, consisting of 21 members, will have the power 
finally, when the question shall concern the interests of the universi- 
ties exclusively, to deliberate with its body reduced to only the repre- 
sentatives of that division. 

The council of middle education, consisting of 10 members, may 
divide into two sections, the first having to do with the athenees, 
the other with the middle schools. It is to give its advice upon the 
competitive examinations, upon the national expenditures for this 
division of education, upon examinations, degrees, certificates, all as 
limited by legal dispositions; it examines the textbooks used in this 
division of education, and proposes instructions to be given to in- 
spectors. 

The council of normal and primary education, composed of 15 
members, embraces two sections, the normal and the primary. It 
gives its advice upon all matters submitted to it by the minister or 



8 BIENlSriAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1918-1920. 

b}^ one of its members. The minister submits to the council the 
reports of the provincial inspectors on the situation of primary edu- 
cation. The council examines the books and teaching materials sub- 
mitted to it by the minister or by its members. 

To sum up, the reform instituted by M. Destree, the minister, con- 
sists first of conferring upon the three councils existing before the 
German occupation and now reorganized the rights of initiative 
they did not possess before and, by the establishment of a higher 
council of public instruction, in coordinating the labors of the coun- 
cils in such a way as to fill in gaps, avoid duplication, and establish 
the necessary links between the various divisions of education. 

The opening session of the four councils, meeting together, was 
held March 30, 1920. The minister in a moving appeal called upon 
all the members to labor together for Belgium's reconstruction, and 
urged especial attention to matters concerning moral and civic and 
esthetic education, the conditions of admission to higher studies, the 
professional preparation of teachers of secondary education, and the 
improvement of primary normal education. 

The Federation of Christian Teachers of Belgium met in Brussels 
in August, 1919, the first time since 1913, with a large number of 
members present. Complaint was voiced of the delay of local coun- 
cils in the payment of teachers' salaries long in arrears, some as far 
back as the opening of the war. Eesolutions were passed urging the' 
passage of a law incorporating the following principles: Equality 
before the law of all schools, whether free or official; graduated 
salaries; salaries for men and women teachers, paid by the State, 
with 3,600 francs as minimum and 6,000 francs as maximum; bonuses 
for teachers who had fought in the war. 

The official Belgian League of Education has reorganized, meeting 
(1920) in Brussels, and following the same general lines as the 
French league of the same name, urging immediate legislation along 
the following lines: Organization of the fourth grade, education of 
abnormals, assistance to poor scholars, reform and development of 
normal education, publication of works concerning popular educa- 
tion, technical education, and popular agricultural training and 
apprenticeship. 

Before the invasion Belgium manifested progressive spirit in the 
matter of allowing girls access to higher studies. The same spirit 
is shown in the reestablishment of the Girls' High School at Brus- 
sels. This institution, however, is intended for girls who do not 
intend to prepare for university courses, or for the professions. Its 
purpose, as announced, is to train " women who are to play an impor- 
tant role in the intellectual and moral development of Belgium." 



EDUCATIONAL RECOIS'STIIUCTIOIS- IN BELGIUM. 9 

The schedule of hours follow the same lines as the athenees which 
admit girls, but its subjects of instruction are widely different : Psy- 
chology, history of French literature, history of foreign literature, 
historical criticism, history of the ancient civilizations and the 
Orient, history of Greek and Roman civilizations, national history 
and political institutions of Belgium, social and economic studies of 
modern times. Latin and Greek courses are elective. 

The city of Brussels has established the normal studies necessary 
for the training of teachers of manual arts, especially for fourth- 
grade children. They will extend over two years, with eight hours 
weekly. The first year will be devoted to woodworking, metal work- 
ing, technical and ornamental drawing, technology, use of tools, and 
wood carving. 

In the second year the studies of the first will be enlarged upon, 
and in addition studies in industrial hygiene, trigonometry, elements 
of mechanics, and special methodology of manual arts will bfe offered. 

Similar schools for girls are projected, to be opened as soon as 
possible. 

The new free (popular) University of Brussels has secured the 
site occupied by the French section of the exposition of 1910 and 
will at once erect an adequate building. For this, among other sub- 
scriptions, the provincial council of Brabant has granted a million 

francs. 

UNIVERSITY RECONSTRUCTION. 

At the session of the Belgian Parliament on September 10, 1919, 
the premier communicated to the Chamber of Representatives a 
letter from Mr. Herbert Hoover, which, after accounting for all 
maintenance expenses of the Commission for Relief in Belgium and 
estimating a balance of 150 millions of francs still remaining, pro- 
ceeded to set forth a financial project for the restoration and develop- 
ment of higher education in that country. 

According to Mr. Hoover's statements — 

The war and its economic effects demonstrated the supreme importance of 
higher instruction for all social classes and especially for the masses. It is 
necessary (a) to open schools of higher edtication for the sons and daughters 
of those who have not now the means to send them to such schools; (b) to In- 
crease the revenues of such schools in such a way that they may render to the 
community the services justly to be expected of them and that they may be able 
to receive new development in the future. 

Mr. Hoover proposed that — 

1. Thirty-seven per cent of the sum of 150 millions be applied to the estab- 
lishment of a national educational foundation managed by a commission com- 
posed of Belgians and Americans. The revenues of this foundation shall be 
intended as maintennnce grants to the children of families in moderate circum- 
stances in order to permit them to proceed to higher education. 



10 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1918-1920. 

2. Sixty-tliree per cent of tlie 150 millions shall be appropriated at once to 
the following institutions : The Universities of Brussels, Louvain, Ghent, Li^ge 
(13.33 per cent for each) ; school of mines at Mens (3 per cent) ; Colonial 
Higher School (6.66 per cent). 

The Chamber of Eepresentatives accepted the donation with pro- 
found gratitude and appreciation of its meaning for the future of 
Belgium. 

The National Educational Foundation has thus at its disposal a 
capital of 55,000,000 francs, which it is hoped may be still further 
increased after the final settlement of all accounts of the Eeliof 
Commission. This foundation will be incorporated by a law 
yet to be passed. The revenues will be devoted especially to the 
establishment of local and traveling scholarships for needy students. 
The trustees of the foundation have as their aim to make such selec- 
tions of beneficiaries as shall introduce a truly educational elite 
into the universities. On the other hand, a portion of the revenues 
will be appropriated for the extension of learning and granted to 
professors to permit them to travel, to pursue scientific research, and 
to i)ublish specialized works which their personal resources do not 
permit them to issue. 

The sum total assigned to institutions of higher education is fixed, 
subject to change, at 95,000,000 francs— 20,000,000 for each of the 
four universities, 10,000,000 for the colonial school, 5,000,000 for the 
school of mines. Of this sum, an advance of 20,000,000 was turned 
over in September. 

Interesting legal complications have resulted from these donations. 
The free Universities of Brussels and Louvain have been incorpo- 
rated by law since 1911; but the State Universities of Ghent and 
Liege are not on this footing. They desire, however, to obtain this 
status by law. The scheme outlined by Mr. Hoover now proposes to 
divert the 4 million intended for higher education not to the State 
but to the universities themselves. The latter hail this with delight, 
for they perceive in the decree of incorporation a measure which 
will confer upon them, in the eye of the State, an autonomy which 
they have never enjoyed and do not now enjoy. They see in it also 
far-reaching consequences, not only for material enrichment but also 
for the recruiting of their scientific and professorial staffs. 

The announcement of the donation of the commission for Belgian 
relief has aroused delight and no less surprise in scientific circles. 
The preliminary steps to the decision of the commission were known 
to only a few privileged members, though they involved many long 
and minute investigations into educational matters. The genesis of 
the final act may be traced back to April, 1916. Wliile the war was 
in full progress, delegates from the four imiversities and the national 
relief committee, undaunted and still full of confidenc'e in the ulti- 



EDUCATION- AL RECONSTRUCTTON IN BELGIUM. 11 

mate issue of the conflict, meeting for routine work, dared to look 
beyond that into the field of the nation's educational needs. With 
the increase of the sums at the disposal of the committee, their plans 
took a wider scope and came to include educational matters as well. 

The donation attains two ends at once, the democratic and the sci- 
entific. It has received universal commendation both in Belgium 
and France. In the latter country it has been commended even by 
that section of the French press which is inclined to question the 
future of purely scientific studies in the increasing democratization 
of modern society. The combination adopted, that of carrying 
higher education to its highest degree of perfection and at the same 
time making it freely accessible to the youth of the masses, affords 
the best of all solutions yet devised for the problem of the future 
relations of science arid democracy — -a problem universally regarded 
as one of the most serious that has to be faced in modern education. 

A vital feature of the scheme is the stipulation that no portion of 
the donations is to be touched for the construction of buildings. It 
is intended that they be entirely devoted to the improvement of the 
conditions of life for the professors and students, and the endow- 
ments of laboratories and libraries. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS. 

Three new courses have been instituted this year in the University 
of Brussels. One, in pedagogy, has been established independent of 
the faculties. Courses are open to teachers of the secondary and 
primary education, as to candidates for the doctorate of philosophy, 
letters and sciences, who propose to follow a career in the athenees 
(corresponding to the French lycees). In order to appreciate more 
fully the meaning of this new regulation, the reader is reminded 
that, since the abolition of the higher normal schools in 1890, the 
teaching force of the" secondary schools has had to be recruited 
among the doctors sent out by the universities. However, it is 
recognized that if the scientific preparation of this type of teachers 
is satisfactory, their professional and pedagogical preparation is 
by no means so. It is to remedy this situation that the University 
of Brussels has established the interrelated unit of courses making 
up the pedagogical section: Biology, psychology, sociology, peda- 
gogy, methodology, physical education and hj^gdenje, history of 
pedagogy, ethics, and history. These courses are reenforced by 
l)ractical exercises in teaching, in experimental psychology and 
pedagogy, and in social studies tending to bring teachers and stu- 
dents together. 

After two years of attendance on these courses, practical exer- 
cises, grouped studies, and two examinations, the students obtain a 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
12 BIENNIAL SURVF.Y OF EDUCATION, 1918- Q HOH CAO COQ 4 

certificate of pedagogical studies. Fifty students enrolled for 
1919-20. 

Officially dependent upon the faculties of the university, the 
Government has established a section of technical aviation, the 
courses in which are reserved for engineers having a diploma. They 
embrace lectures and recitations upon the mechanism and construc- 
tion of planes, on aviation motors, on the law of the air, hygiene, 
aerial photography, aerology, wireless telegraphy, map making, and 
laboratory examinations. 

A section in romance philology has been founded under the fac- 
ulty of philosophy and letters, embracing research study into the 
French language and literature and kindred languages. 

The University of Louvain is rising rapidly from its ruins. Its 
courses were resumed in November, 1919, when over 3,000 persons, 
including those taking single courses and adults pursuing night 
courses, were enrolled. The faculties of medicine and science have 
initiated new laboratories in temporary quarters and are seeking to 
give thorough instruction. Work in restoration of the world-famous 
library, for which subscriptions were begun in May, 1915, is under 
way under the auspices of an international committee of intellectuals 
representing 37 distinct nationalities. With this a special Belgian 
committee works in cooperation. On the very day of the armistice 
it had already catalogued 80,000 volumes, sent by friends during the 
enemy's occupation. 

A group of scientific men have taken the initiative in establish- 
ing an institute of higher education for women, which will be put 
under the patronage of the University of Louvain. 

The visit of the British university delegates on mission to Belgium, 
November, 1919, was an episode of great educational and interna- 
tional interest. Ten representatives of every grade of British 
university institutions composed the mission. They visited a repre- 
sentative of every grade of higher institution in Belgium. Formal 
conferences with Belgian educational authorities and informal dis- 
cussions were held for the arriving at ways and means of mutually 
benefiting the educational situation of the two nations so closely 
allied in the fire of adversity. Extensive interchange of professors 
and of students was aimed at, aiid many definite conclusions were 
reached. r^The Belgian authorities evinced deep interest in the or- 
ganization of the British universities bureau and planned the estab- 
lishments of such among their own higher institutions.^ 

3 Abridged from report of the mission in Loudon University Gazette, April 7, 1920. 

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